Articles by RD
We found 3662 results.
Global Outrage at Saudi Arabia as Jailed Blogger Receives Public Flogging
Ian Black – The Guardian,
12 Jan 2015
Kingdom stays silent as protesters contrast its opposition to Paris attacks on free speech with its own attacks on free speech.
→ read full articleDoubling Down on Dictatorship in the Middle East
Amanda Ufheil-Somers, Other Words – TRANSCEND Media Service,
12 Jan 2015
Even the collapse of multiple governments failed to upend the decades-long U.S. policy of backing friendly dictators. Washington has doubled down on maintaining a steady supply of weapons and funding to governments willing to support U.S. strategic interests, regardless of how they treat their citizens.
→ read full article(Português) Je ne suis pas Charlie, eu não sou Charlie
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
12 Jan 2015
Alguns chamam os cartunistas mortos de “heróis” ou de os “gigantes do humor politicamente incorreto”, ou de “mártires da liberdade de expressão”. As charges polêmicas do Charlie Hebdo são de péssimo gosto, mas isso não está em questão. O fato é que elas são perigosas, criminosas até, por dois motivos.
→ read full articleRichard Jackson: Terrorism, Torture, and the Problem of Evil in Our Time
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jan 2015
Richard Jackson, a professor of peace studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, has written a probing political essay that takes the form of an imagined dialogue between a British interrogator and an Egyptian terrorist who is apparently thought at the time of their conversation to be the mastermind of an imminent attack on Great Britain.
→ read full articleWhen Is Civil Society a Force for Social Transformation?
Michael Edwards – Open Democracy,
5 Jan 2015
There are more civil society organizations in the world today than at any other time in history, so why isn’t their impact growing?
→ read full articleThe Irrelevance of Liberal Zionism
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
5 Jan 2015
Frustrated by Israeli settlement expansion, excessive violence, AIPAC maximalism, Netanyahu’s arrogance, Israel’s defiant disregard of international law, various Jewish responses claim to seek a middle ground.
→ read full articleWho’s The True Enemy of Internet Freedom – China, Russia, or the US?
Evgeny Morozov – The Guardian,
5 Jan 2015
Beijing and Moscow are rightly chastised for restricting their citizens’ online access – but it’s the US that is now even more aggressive in asserting its digital sovereignty. One’s man internet freedom is another man’s internet imperialism.
→ read full articleRemembering 2014 (Badly)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Dec 2014
A posture of cynical hopelessness or despair worsens prospects for positive future developments, however empirically based such a negative assessment seems. All of us should recall that those who struggle for what seems ‘impossible’ today often turn out to be the heroes of tomorrow.
→ read full articleHow Movies Embraced Hinduism (Without You Even Noticing)
Nirpal Dhaliwal – The Guardian,
29 Dec 2014
From Interstellar to Matrix, Batman and Star Wars the venerable religion has been the driving philosophy behind many hit movies. Why? A philosophy to which many are keen to subscribe is what makes religions successful. Movies, too.
→ read full article(Italiano) L’Impero Del Consumo
Eduardo Galeano, Come Don Chisciotte – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Dec 2014
Società dei consumi. La bocca è una delle porte dell’anima, dicevano gli antichi. Ma se da lì passa solo cibo spazzatura, la vita è ridotta a un insieme infinito di acquisti di merci usa e getta. E lo struscio domenicale nel centro delle città è sostituito dal pellegrinaggio negli shopping mall che accerchiano le periferie.
→ read full articleDeath Toll among Qatar’s 2022 World Cup Workers Revealed
Owen Gibson, and Pete Pattisson – The Guardian,
29 Dec 2014
Nepalese migrants building the infrastructure to the 2022 World Cup have died at a rate of one every two days in 2014 – despite Qatar’s promises to improve their working conditions. The figure excludes deaths of Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi workers, raising fears that fatalities would be more than one a day.
→ read full articleArchitects of Atrocity Remain at Large, and Unrepentant
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
22 Dec 2014
We know who the torturer-in-chief was, and we know his vice-torturer has said George Bush was as fully informed as he, Dick Cheney, was. Along with everything else we know about these men who still defend their criminality, why isn’t that enough for probable cause and a criminal indictment? There’s much more to be said about this defining moment in our history.
→ read full articleThere Is Life after a Dementia Diagnosis
Rebecca Ley – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
Our ageing society urgently needs to replace stigma with understanding, and ostracism with acceptance. They live among us – drinking tea, watching television, smiling more on sunny days. Many of them still drive, push supermarket trolleys, and prop up their local bars with a pint.
→ read full articleObama and Raúl Castro Thank Pope for Breakthrough in US-Cuba Relations
Dan Roberts and Rory Carroll – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
Barack Obama and Raúl Castro thanked Pope Francis for helping broker a deal to normalising relations between US and Cuba after 18 months of secret talks over prisoner releases brought a sudden end to decades of cold war hostility.
→ read full articleTaliban Butchers Are Pashtun Cowards
Robin Edward Poulton – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
If you sit of an evening beside a fire in the Pashtun heartlands, you will hear tales of bravery, honour and generosity. You will hear stories about how the Pashtuns were never defeated by Alexander the Great nor by Genghis Khan nor by the British Empire nor by the Soviet or American imperial armies. If you remind the Taliban about surats from the Holy Koran that tell Muslims never to kill another Muslim, how will your brave Pashtun slaughterer-of-children reply?
→ read full article5 Ways to Protect Your Spine at Work
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
Regardless if your job requires heavy lifting or you spend most of your days at a desk, back injuries you want to avoid. They can happen from physical strains and many people don’t realize that they can happen under conditions that don’t appear as strenuous.
→ read full article(Português) Pressão dos Países Latino-Americanos Foi Decisiva para o Fim do Embargo a Cuba
Leonardo Ferreira – Brasil de Fato,
22 Dec 2014
Decisão é fruto de negociações secretas entre Washington e Havana, com ajuda fundamental do Papa Francisco. Também tiveram peso a formação de grupos internacionais, como a Celac e a pressão da Unasul.
→ read full articleI’m an ‘Anonymous’ Hacker in Prison, And I Am Not a Crook. I’m an Activist
Jeremy Hammond – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
We are condemned as criminals without consciences, dismissed as anti-social teens without a cause, or hyped as cyber-terrorists to justify the expanding surveillance state. But hacktivism exists within the history of social justice movements. Hacktivism is still the future, and it’s good to see people still doing something about it.
→ read full articleIt’s Not Cuba That Has Just Decided to Rejoin the Modern World – It’s the US
Martin Kettle – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
From its very earliest days, the US has seen Cuba as an American offshore interest. It is more than 200 years since the US, under Thomas Jefferson, first tried to buy Cuba from Spain. At the end of the 19th century America instead seized Cuba from Spain at gunpoint. Later on it leased Cuba back to US-approved Cubans on US terms, which included the retention of the Guantánamo Bay base.
→ read full articleThe Joke Is on Them: Gay Conversion Group’s Billboard Star IS GAY
Ed Pilkington – The Guardian,
22 Dec 2014
The poster claimed that of identical twins, one was gay and one straight. In fact the ‘twins’ were a single model and he is openly gay.
→ read full articleThe Dead End of Post-Oslo Diplomacy: What Next?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
The Oslo framework was an unseemly tacit assumption that the Palestinians would be willing to carry on negotiations without complaining about the Israeli violations of international law, most conspicuously the continued unlawful settlement activity.
→ read full articleAlkarama Human Rights Award to Shireen Issawi
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Dec 2014
Geneva, 13 December 2014 – A letter written from an Israeli prison by the recipient of the award Ms. Shireen Issawi, a brave, resolute, and inspiring human rights defender who has dedicated her professional career as a lawyer to the long Palestinian national struggle for freedom, human rights, and self-determination.
→ read full articleFull Scale of Plastic in the World’s Oceans Revealed for First Time
Oliver Milman – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
Over five trillion pieces of plastic weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes are floating in our oceans says most comprehensive study to date on plastic pollution around the world.
→ read full articleUN Official Wants US Administrators Involved in Torture to Be Prosecuted
Samuel Oakford – Vice News,
15 Dec 2014
Following the publication on Tuesday [9 Dec 2014] of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on Bush-era CIA interrogation practices, a top United Nations expert has called for US officials involved in torture to be prosecuted — and he says that they can be tried in any country.
→ read full articleSending Troops to Protect Dictators Threatens All of Us
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
CIA torture, crushing democracy and Britain’s new military base in Bahrain all deliver a toxic message. The heavily censored summary of the US senate torture report turns the stomach in its litany of criminal barbarity unleashed by the CIA on real and imagined US enemies.
→ read full articleCop 20: UN Climate Change Conference | Lima – Talks Reach Global Warming Agreement
Suzanne Goldenberg in Lima – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
Sunday 14 December 2014 – International negotiators at the Lima climate change talks have agreed on a plan to fight global warming that would for the first time commit all countries to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. •Full text of the deal (pdf)
→ read full articleFacebook’s ‘Emotional Experiment’ Is Most Shared Academic Research
Alex Hern - The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
9 Dec 2014 – Facebook’s notorious emotional manipulation study received more online attention than any other scientific research in 2014, according to an analytics company.
→ read full articleRight Livelihood Award Acceptance Speech by Edward Snowden
Right Livelihood Award Foundation – Pressenza Int’l Press Agency,
15 Dec 2014
I am far below qualified for this kind of honor. It is an extraordinary privilege to be counted among so many around the world who have fought for human rights even at great personal cost, even when it was hard, even when no one was watching, when they were not seeking recognition and when they never received it.
→ read full articleRectal Rehydration and Broken Limbs: The Grisliest Findings in the CIA Torture Report
Dominic Rushe, Ewen MacAskill, Ian Cobain , Alan Yuhas and Oliver Laughland – The Guardian,
15 Dec 2014
Parts of the CIA interrogation programme were known, but the catalogue of abuse is nightmarish, especially knowing much more will never be revealed.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden Wins Swedish Human Rights Award for NSA Revelations
Ewen MacAskill – The Guardian,
8 Dec 2014
Whistleblower receives several standing ovations in Swedish parliament as he wins Right Livelihood award. Speaking by video from Moscow he said: ‘All the prices we’ve paid, all the sacrifices we made, I believe we would do again – I know I would.’ The Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, was also among the recipients.
→ read full articleThe 2001 Anthrax Deception: The Case for a Domestic Conspiracy
Edward Curtin - TRANSCEND Media Service,
8 Dec 2014
Review of [TRANSCEND Member] Graeme MacQueen’s Book – The anthrax letters were instrumental in getting tyrannical legislation passed by Congress. The US tried to blame Muslim terrorists but the anthrax was a version that only existed in US military labs.
→ read full article(Português) Onde está o nó da questão ecológica (I)?
Leonardo Boff – Carta Maior,
8 Dec 2014
Estamos cansados de meio-ambiente. Queremos o ambiente inteiro, vale dizer, uma visão sistêmica do sitema-Terra, do sistema-vida e da civilização humana.
→ read full article(Português) Eduardo Galeano: Ayotzinapa, México
Eduardo Galeano – Carta Maior,
8 Dec 2014
Os governantes perderam o controle sobre o medo, a fúria que desencadearam está se voltando contra eles. A raiva digna fará o México despertar e questionar.
→ read full articleCuba’s Extraordinary Global Medical Record Shames the US Blockade
Seumas Milne – The Guardian,
8 Dec 2014
Four months into the Ebola emergency that has devastated West Africa, Cuba leads the world in direct medical support to fight the epidemic. The US and Britain have sent thousands of troops and promised aid that has yet to materialise. From Ebola to earthquakes, Havana’s doctors have saved millions. Obama must lift this embargo.
→ read full articleUS Control Is Diminishing, but It Still Thinks It Owns the World
Noam Chomsky – The Guardian,
8 Dec 2014
The United States has long assumed the right to use violence to achieve its aims, but it is now less able to implement its policies.
→ read full articleBusiness and Entrepreneurs Seize Opportunities in Rise of Veganism
Damien Clarkson – The Guardian,
8 Dec 2014
With a growing consumer interest in plant-based healthy eating, vegetarian and vegan options present a chance new business and competitive advantage.
→ read full articleCould Your Smart Tablet Be Damaging to Your Health?
Dr. Edward F. Group, Global Healing Center – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Dec 2014
A new report is showing that many tablets and phones are using chemicals that are drastically affecting the health of consumers.
→ read full articleEU Divided on Issue of Net Neutrality
Alex Hern – The Guardian,
1 Dec 2014
European commission vice-president for single digital market has criticised Italian proposals to weaken net neutrality within the common market.
→ read full articleIn Praise of Buffer States
Robin Edward Poulton, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Dec 2014
Buffer states keep armies apart and allow important countries to trade in peace.
→ read full articleMemoir Sketch: Championing Lost Causes
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Dec 2014
To contemplate death without the metaphysical painkillers of an imagined afterlife is to be finally alone. In a sense learning to die is equivalent to learning to live alone, and takes courage and fortitude.
→ read full article41 Men Targeted but 1,147 People Killed: US Drone Strikes – The Facts on the Ground
Spencer Ackerman – The Guardian,
1 Dec 2014
New analysis of data conducted by human rights group Reprieve raises questions about accuracy of intelligence guiding ‘precise’ strikes. ‘They are only as precise as the intelligence that feeds them.’
→ read full articleGaza 2014 Compilation
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Dec 2014
A POMEAS Compilation of Writings Relating to Israel’s 50-Day Attack on Gaza
→ read full articleRemembering Yoshikazu Sakamoto (1927-2014)
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
1 Dec 2014
I am sharing these words of appreciation, and hope that anyone from Japan who comes across this text will contact me, especially if they have a way of putting me in touch with either Yoshi’s family or Japanese media. I would like to believe that ‘an American appreciation’ of Professor Sakamoto, an important public intellectual, would be of interest to those who knew and admired him.
→ read full articleIsraeli Cabinet Approves Legislation Defining Nation-State of Jewish People
Peter Beaumont – The Guardian,
24 Nov 2014
23 Nov 2014 – A controversial bill that officially defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people has been approved by cabinet despite warnings that the move risks undermining the country’s democratic character.
→ read full articleFivefold Increase in Terrorism Fatalities since 9/11, Says Report
Ewen MacAskill – The Guardian,
24 Nov 2014
Terrorism is on the rise, with an almost fivefold increase in fatalities since 9/11, in spite of US-led efforts to combat it in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world, according to a report published on Tuesday [18 Nov 2014].
→ read full articleUN Presses Myanmar over Rohingya Rights
ReliefWeb – UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),
24 Nov 2014
The United Nations adopted a resolution Friday [21 Nov 2014] urging Myanmar to grant citizenship to its Rohingya Muslim minority, ramping up pressure on Yangon to scrap a controversial identity plan.
→ read full articleRethinking Economics: From Scarcity to Abundance
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Nov 2014
The coming crash may be humanity’s golden opportunity to transition to post-economic society. Or it may be the beginning of endless misery, violence, confusion, ignorance parading as technocracy, repression and –what is worse– ecocide.
→ read full articleWhy NATO Is a Danger to World Peace
Immanuel Wallerstein - Toward Freedom,
24 Nov 2014
NATO and what it symbolizes today represents a severe danger because it represents the claim of western countries to interfere everywhere in the name of western interpretations of geopolitical realities.
→ read full articleTanzania Accused of Backtracking over Sale of Masai’s Ancestral Land
David Smith, Africa correspondent – The Guardian,
24 Nov 2014
Masai told to leave historic homeland by end of the year so it can become a private hunting reserve for the Dubai royal family.
→ read full article(Português) Se Conhecêssemos os Sonhos do Homem Branco
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Nov 2014
A crise econômico-financeira que está afligindo grande parte das econonomias mundiais criou a possibilidade de os muito ricos ficarem tão ricos como jamais na história do capitalismo, logicamente à custa da desgraça de países inteiros como a Grécia, a Espanha, Portugal e outros e de modo geral toda a zona do Euro, talvez com uma pequena exceção, da Alemanha.
→ read full articleTwo Interviews [of mine] on Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Nov 2014
14 Nov 2014 – Two recent interviews seek to assess the Palestinian national movement as it is unfolding at this critical time.
→ read full articleLooking Back on WW-I One Hundred Years Later: Four Mixed Messages
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Nov 2014
Dorothy Brown Memorial Lecture, Auckland, New Zealand, November 8, 2014
→ read full article(Português) Assim se constrói o Estado Global de Vigilância–e como sabotá-lo
Tom Englehardt entrevista Laura Poitras – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Diretora de “Citizenfour”, o documentário sobre denúncias de Edward Snowden, alerta: controle social e esvaziamento da democracia ampliaram-se, após revelações. Esperança é consciência.
→ read full articleBurma [Myanmar] Genocide: Case of Burmese Rohingyas Presented at Harvard
Alvin Powell, Harvard Gazette – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Burma’s Rohingya people are being slowly squeezed from their homeland by decades-long government policies that critics say deny them citizenship, health care, work, and schooling, with such tactics punctuated by killings, destroyed homes, and tens of thousands sent to camps.
→ read full articleICC Rules Out Investigation into Israeli Raid on Gaza-Bound Flotilla
Agence France-Presse at The Hague – The Guardian,
10 Nov 2014
War crimes court [International Criminal Court] says killing of Turkish activists by Israeli commandos in 2010 not of sufficient gravity to warrant inquiry.
→ read full articleLooking for a Leader in the Caribbean to End Discrimination against Homosexuals
Robin Guittard, CPNN – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Nov 2014
Trinidad and Tobago’s laws prohibit entry of “homosexuals” into the country and consensual same-sex relationships can be punished with prison sentences of up to 25 years… Positive change on the island could reverberate across the region.
→ read full articleMark Udall’s Loss Is a Blow for Privacy, but He Can Go Out With a Bang: ‘Leak’ the CIA Torture Report
Trevor Timm – The Guardian,
10 Nov 2014
The outgoing Senator and champion of civil liberties has one last chance to read the truth about American atrocities out loud, for the world to see – before it’s too late.
→ read full articleLuxembourg Tax Files: How Tiny State Rubber-Stamped Tax Avoidance on an Industrial Scale
Simon Bowers – The Guardian,
10 Nov 2014
Leaked documents show that one of the EU’s smallest states helped multinationals save millions in tax, to the detriment of its neighbours and allies.
•What do you want to know about Luxembourg’s tax secrets?
•Video: The $870m loan company above a stamp shop
•Explore the documents in full
UN Review of US “International Criminal Program of Torture”
The International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School, et al. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
Since the United States last reported to the Committee Against Torture in 2006, even more evidence has emerged confirming that civilian and military officials at the highest level created, designed, authorized, and implemented a sophisticated, international criminal program of torture.
→ read full articleEcuador’s FM Wants Transnational Corporations Held Accountable
Ricardo Patino – Al Jazeera,
3 Nov 2014
It’s time to reign in the arbitrary actions of corporate power and create the conditions for a more just world.
→ read full articleForeign Jihadists Flocking to Iraq and Syria on ‘Unprecedented Scale’ – UN
Spencer Ackerman – The Guardian,
3 Nov 2014
30 Oct 2014 – A report by the UN Security Council finds that 15,000 people have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside the Islamic State (Isis) and similar extremist groups. They come from more than 80 countries, “including a tail of countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaida”.
→ read full articleTim Cook: ‘I Consider Being Gay among the Greatest Gifts God Has Given Me’
Rupert Neate and Alex Hern – The Guardian,
3 Nov 2014
30 Oct 2014 – Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, has officially come out as gay and described his sexuality as “among the greatest gifts God has given me.” He has written about his sexuality for the first time, in the hope that he can ‘help someone struggling to come to terms with who he or she is.’
→ read full articleUK Axes Support for Mediterranean Migrant Rescue Operation
Alan Travis – The Guardian,
3 Nov 2014
Refugees and human rights organisations react with anger as minister says saving people encourages others to risk voyage.
→ read full articleWhy Foreign Military Intervention Usually Fails in the 21st Century
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
We have reached a stage in the political development of life on the planet where civilizational and species survival itself depends on the urgency of building an effective movement against the war system that remains indispensable to sustain hierarchy and exploitation, wastes huge amounts of resources, and dangerously diverts problem-solving priorities.
→ read full articleMajor Banks Prepare to Pay Billions for Foreign Exchange Manipulation
Richard Smallteacher, CorpWatch – TRANSCEND Media Service,
3 Nov 2014
1 Nov 2014 – Some 19 investigations of multinational banks in ten different legal jurisdictions are on their way to completion and the final tally may hit $41 billion to settle charges of foreign exchange manipulation.
→ read full articleEdward Snowden and the Golden Age of Spying
Tom Engelhardt interviewing Laura Poitras – TomDispatch,
20 Oct 2014
19 Oct 2014 – Having seen her film in a packed house at the New York Film Festival, I sat down with Poitras in a tiny conference room at the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City to discuss just how our world has changed and her part in it.
→ read full articleCatholic Bishops Veto Gay-Friendly Statements Leaving Pope Francis the Loser
Lizzy Davies – The Guardian,
20 Oct 2014
Final report of Roman Catholic extraordinary synod on the family removes talk of ‘welcoming’ gay people.
→ read full articleOslo Is Dead! Long Live Oslo! The UK House of Commons Supports Diplomatic Recognition of Palestine
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
20 Oct 2014
On October 13 [2014] the House of Commons by an overwhelming vote of 274-12 urged the British government to extend diplomatic recognition to Palestine. At first glance, it would seem a rather meaningless gesture. It is a non-binding resolution.
→ read full articleThe U.S. Without a War Is like an Apple Pie without Apples
William Boardman – Reader Supported News,
20 Oct 2014
A Nobel Peace Prize recipient is among the loudest voices for war nowadays. Better, this Nobel Peace prize recipient has unchecked power to wage war and uses it willfully in a variety of nations. Perhaps best, this prize-winning peace president has set out to a plan to make a desert and call it peace, for which a grateful power structure might well give him yet another prize.
→ read full articleLockheed Announces Breakthrough on Nuclear Fusion Energy
Reuters – The Guardian,
20 Oct 2014
Lockheed Martin Corp said on Wednesday [15 Oct 2014] it had made a technological breakthrough in developing a power source based on nuclear fusion, and the first reactors, small enough to fit on the back of a truck, could be ready for use in a decade.
→ read full articleClimate Change: How to Make the Big Polluters Really Pay
Naomi Klein – The Guardian,
20 Oct 2014
By dropping Shell, Lego shows new ways to target the astronomical profits of the fossil fuel industries.
→ read full articleSecret Space Plane Lands at US Air Force Base after Unknown Two-Year Mission
Associated Press – The Guardian,
20 Oct 2014
Resembling a small space shuttle, the X-37B landed in southern California Friday [17 Oct 2014], after 674 days in orbit on a secret mission.
→ read full articleSyria-to-Ukraine Wars Send U.S. Defense Stocks to Records
Richard Clough, Bloomberg – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Oct 2014
Led by Lockheed Martin Corp. the biggest U.S. defense companies are trading at record prices as shareholders reap rewards from escalating military conflicts around the world. Investors see rising sales for makers of missiles, drones and other weapons as the U.S. hits Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq.
→ read full articleUS to Deploy 3000 Troops to Ebola Crisis Areas
Jeff Mason and James Harding Giahyue, Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Oct 2014
President Barack Obama called West Africa’s deadly Ebola outbreak a looming threat to global security and announced a major expansion of the U.S. role in trying to halt its spread, including deployment of 3,000 troops to the region.
→ read full articlePolice Go Nuts over Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Remote Speech in Vermont
William Boardman - Reader Supported News,
13 Oct 2014
When Goddard announced that students had chosen Mumia to be the commencement speaker at their graduation, Philadelphia police, politicians, media, and Fox News went crazy with angry rhetoric aimed at curbing free speech.
→ read full articleDid Israel Commit Genocide in Gaza?
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Oct 2014
In a special session of the Russell Tribunal, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge was critically scrutinized from the perspective of international law, including the core allegation of genocide through testimonies by legal and weapons experts, health workers, journalists and others who experienced the 50 days of military assault.
→ read full articleQuestioning Sweden’s ‘Bold’ Diplomatic Initiative
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
13 Oct 2014
The new center-left Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven, in his inaugural speech to Parliament indicated on October 3 [2014] the intention of the Swedish government to recognize Palestinian statehood.
→ read full articleChina Just Overtook the US as the World’s Largest Economy
Mike Bird – Business Insider,
13 Oct 2014
8 Oct 2014 – Sorry, America. China just overtook the US to become the world’s largest economy, according to the International Monetary Fund.
→ read full articleHypocrisy: Saudi Arabia Beheads 26 People in 1 Month, Some for ‘Sorcery’ – The West Has Nothing to Say about It (Images)
Richard Rowe, AATP – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Oct 2014
We condemn ISIS’ public beheadings, but in 2012-13, our allies in Saudi Arabia cut the heads off of 79 people [in public]. Let’s play “Compare and Contrast” for a moment:
→ read full articleIran Nuclear Talks: Why Tehran Must Be Brought In from the Cold
Christopher de Bellaigue – The Guardian,
6 Oct 2014
A deal with Iran is vital for the stability of the wider Middle East. The opportunity must be grasped.
→ read full articleChanging the Political Climate: A Transitional Imperative
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Oct 2014
The most daunting challenging of adapting to the realities of the anthropocene era is achieving a soft transition from state-centric world order to a geo-centric reconfiguring of political community to enable the emergence of effective and humane global governance.
→ read full articleNeoliberalism Has Brought Out the Worst in Us
Paul Verhaeghe – The Guardian,
6 Oct 2014
An economic system that rewards psychopathic personality traits has changed our ethics and our personalities. We are forever told that we are freer to choose the course of our lives than ever before, but the freedom to choose outside the success narrative is limited.
→ read full article(Castellano) Sustentación, aceptación y legitimación de los extractivismos: múltiples expresiones pero un mismo basamento
Eduardo Gudynas – Centro Tricontinental-CETRI,
6 Oct 2014
Los extractivismos se expanden y profundizan a pesar de sus impactos y la resistencia ciudadana. Esto es posible porque distintas argumentaciones les brindan sustentación, permiten su aceptación y los legitiman. Entre las más importantes se analizan las siguientes:
→ read full article‘Africa’s Arms Dump’: Following the Trail of Bullets in the Sudans
Charlton Doki in Juba and Adam Mohamed Ahmad in Khartoum - The Niles, The Guardian Africa network,
6 Oct 2014
Sudan and South Sudan are among the most heavily armed countries in the world. The Niles investigates how this came about and the consequences of spiraling bloodshed.
→ read full article4+ Logics of Living Together on Planet Earth
Richard Falk – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Sep 2014
It is misleading to describe ‘world order’ as consisting exclusively of sovereign territorial states. This misimpression is further encouraged by the structure of the United Nations, whose members are states, and only states.
→ read full articleRight Livelihood Awards 2014 – ‘Alternative Nobel’ Goes to Edward Snowden
Society for the Right Livelihood Award – TRANSCEND Media Service,
29 Sep 2014
25 Sep 2014 – The 2014 Right Livelihood Honorary Award goes to EDWARD SNOWDEN (USA) “for his courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights”.
→ read full articleBhutan Could Be World’s First Wholly Organic Nation within a Decade
Jo Confino – The Guardian,
29 Sep 2014
Political parties in the Himalayan kingdom unite to eradicate chemical fertilisers and pesticides as part of its Gross National Happiness programme.
→ read full articleBacksliding on Nuclear Promises
The Editorial Board – The New York Times,
29 Sep 2014
The administration is making a foolish trade-off — pouring money into modernization while reducing funds that help improve security at nuclear sites in Russia and other countries where terrorists or criminals could get their hands on nuclear materials.
→ read full articleJulian Assange: ‘When you post to Facebook, you’re being a rat’
James Camp – The Guardian,
29 Sep 2014
Assange said: “Compare the mission statements of Google and the NSA – the NSA say, ‘We want to collect all private information, pool it, store it, sort it, index it, and exploit it.’ Whereas Google says, ‘We want to collect all private information, pool it, store it, sort it, and sell those profiles to advertisers.’ “Really, they’re identical. Every time you go to a party and take a picture and post that picture to Facebook, you’re being a rat. You’re being a narc.”
→ read full articleThe Myth of Religious Violence
Karen Armstrong – The Guardian,
29 Sep 2014
The popular belief that religion is the cause of the world’s bloodiest conflicts is central to our modern conviction that faith and politics should never mix. But the messy history of their separation suggests it was never so simple.
→ read full articleFatah and Hamas Agree Deal for Unity Government to Take Control of Gaza
Peter Beaumont – The Guardian,
29 Sep 2014
25 Sep 2014 – The two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have reached a “comprehensive” agreement that would turn over the civil administration of Gaza immediately to officials of a Palestinian unity government led by President Mahmoud Abbas. Breakthrough agreement negotiated in Cairo is designed to ease blockade and open way to reconstruction after Gaza war.
→ read full articleThe Fight to Keep Toxic Mining—and the World Bank—Out of El Salvador
Diana Anahi Torres-Valverde – Foreign Policy In Focus,
29 Sep 2014
Hundreds of protesters recently gathered at the World Bank to shame a gold mining firm’s shakedown of one of Central America’s poorest countries. For miners, investors, and artisans, few things are more precious than gold. But for human life itself, nothing is more precious than water.
→ read full articleJosé Mujica: Is This the World’s Most Radical President?
Giles Tremlett – The Guardian,
29 Sep 2014
Uruguay’s José Mujica lives in a tiny house rather than the presidential palace, and gives away 90% of his salary. He’s legalised marijuana and gay marriage. But his greatest legacy is governing without giving up his revolutionary ideals.
→ read full articleHow to Make Isis Fall on Its Own Sword
Chelsea E Manning – The Guardian,
22 Sep 2014
Degrade and destroy? The west should try to disrupt the canny militants into self-destruction, because bombs will only backfire.
→ read full articleNATO Makes War – NATO Is Not an Alliance for Peace
Robin Edward Poulton – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Sep 2014
NATO’s summit in Wales (September 4-5, 2014) was BAD NEWS for peace makers, and bad for all world citizens. Are the NATO Nuts going to invade Ukraine? Do they want to create a new European war? Dangerous rhetoric and dangerous ideas lead to dangerous actions.
→ read full articleThe New (Religious) Face of Civil Disobedience
Sanford Levinson – Al Jazeera America,
22 Sep 2014
A resurgent sanctuary movement may complicate the precepts of the Christian right. Conservatives and liberals might find themselves rethinking some of their views about the meaning of religious freedom and the responsibilities of good citizenship.
→ read full articleSnowden: New Zealand’s Prime Minister Isn’t Telling the Truth about Mass Surveillance
Edward Snowden – The Intercept,
22 Sep 2014
Let me be clear: any statement that mass surveillance is not performed in New Zealand, or that the internet communications are not comprehensively intercepted and monitored, or that this is not intentionally and actively abetted by the GCSB, is categorically false.
→ read full articleMemo on the Evaluation of the Community Work Program
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
22 Sep 2014
This memo stresses the importance of evaluating CWP´s compliance with its mandate to use public employment to catalyse community development. It also underlines the importance of issues in economic theory that bear on CWP´s contribution to society.
→ read full articleNaomi Klein: The Hypocrisy behind the Big Business Climate Change Battle
Naomi Klein – The Guardian,
15 Sep 2014
I denied climate change for longer than I care to admit. I told myself the science was too complicated and the environmentalists were dealing with it. And I continued to behave as if there was nothing wrong with the “elite” frequent-flyer card in my wallet. A great many of us engage in this kind of denial.
→ read full articleIraq: Yazidis’ Genocide?
René Wadlow, UN Geneva Association of Word Citizens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
15 Sep 2014
With the incomplete evidence at hand, I would maintain that the ISIS policy is genocide and not just a control of territory. Although the UN “track record” of dealing with genocide is very mixed, the first immediate step is for a State to raise the issue within the UN.
→ read full article